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Email address verificationRelated Patent Categories: Electrical Computers And Digital Processing Systems: Multicomputer Data Transferring, Computer Conferencing, Demand Based MessagingEmail address verification description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060212522, Email address verification. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The invention concerns email processing, and in particular, ensuring email messages are sent to the correct address domain. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] As the growth of email continues, the potential for messages to be addressed incorrectly likewise increases. Email address take the well known format "user domain", where "user" is a unique user identifier at a given "domain name" address. A domain name is the unique name of a computer on the Internet that distinguishes it from the other systems on the network. Every website, email account, etc, on the Internet is hosted on at least one computer (server) a having unique IP address. Because it is difficult to remember numbers, an IP address can be associated with a fully qualified host name (a domain name), such as "www.foo.com". Domain names also provide a persistent address for some service when it is necessary to move to a different server, which would have a different IP address. [0005] On the Internet, the destination domain's configuration determines where to deliver a message. Generally the message is delivered first determining what host the message should be sent to and then delivering it directly to that host. The sending server will first look for a Mail Exchanger (MX) record for its domain in a DNS database. MX records are always assigned a preference. If several mail exchangers exist for one host, the mail transport agent will try to transfer the message to the exchanger with the lowest preference value, and only if this fails will it try a host with a higher value. If there is no MX record for a domain, or no MX records left that are suitable, the mail transport agent is permitted to see if the domain has an IP address associated with it (an address or "a-" record) and attempt delivery directly to that host. [0006] Currently, if a sending email server can find either an MX record or an address record, but cannot deliver the mail, the sending server's queue is impacted as well as the user who send the original mail. This problem has become more acute due to the large number of domain names registered every year which have address records, but which are not used for any real purpose. In addition, mistyped email domains are particularly problematic for email service providers, such as Hotmail and Yahoo mail, where users' can routinely misspell domain names. [0007] Errors in an email address can result from an error in the user address name or in the domain name. When a sender initiates transmission of an email message, the sender's messaging server attempts to make delivery using standard protocols. If an error in the addressee's name is present, but the domain is correct, the sender's messing server should be able to make contact with the addressee's domain mail server. The addressee's server will indicate that no such user is present at the domain and an error will be returned to the sender, generally within a short period of time. [0008] However, if the error is in the domain name portion of the intended recipient's address, the error may not be known to the user for some time. Generally, if a mail system cannot communicate with a domain to deliver mail to it, the mail server will queue the outbound mail for some period of time (on the order of days) before indicating a mail delivery failure. If a mail is still undeliverable after a configured elapsed time interval, then a Non Delivery Report is sent. Once a mail is accepted by the user's own mail server, many users will assume it has been delivered, even thought it actually remains in the mail server's queue. It is not until the mail delivery is attempted that the user might get an NDR, and in some cases, if the domain name was mistyped or if the domain is not configured to accept mail, then it may be multiple days (waiting for time out parameters) before an NDR is sent. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] The invention, roughly described, includes a method for sending email. The method includes the steps of receiving: an email address including a destination domain from a user; prior to sending a message to the destination domain, determining whether the destination domain will receive email; and providing an indication to the user that the email may not be deliverable to the address. [0010] In one embodiment, the step of determining includes maintaining a list of problematic destination domains and checking the destination domain against said list. [0011] In another embodiment, the invention comprises a method of providing an email service. In this embodiment, the method includes the steps of: providing an email composition interface; receiving a destination email address including a destination domain from the composition interface; determining whether the destination domain will receive email; and providing an indication to the user that the destination domain may not receive email. [0012] In another embodiment the invention comprises a method of displaying information to the user in a computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a user interface selection device. The method includes the steps of: retrieving a user input email address including a domain; receiving a signal indicative of ability of the domain to receive email; and displaying an indicator if the domain cannot receive email [0013] The present invention will appear more clearly from the following description in which the preferred embodiment of the invention has been set forth in conjunction with the drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a method of the present invention. [0015] FIG. 2 is an exemplary email composition screen which may be used by a sending user in accordance with the present invention. [0016] FIG. 3 is an enlarged portion of the composition screen of FIG. 2 illustrating one mechanism for providing feedback to the user in accordance with the present invention. [0017] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining whether to notify a user of a problem with a domain address. [0018] FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system for implementing the present invention. [0019] FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a second system for implementing the present invention. [0020] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a processing device suitable for implementing any of the processing devices illustrated in FIG. 5 or 6. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Continue reading about Email address verification... Full patent description for Email address verification Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Email address verification patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Email address verification or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Electronic message system with federation of trusted senders Next Patent Application: Method and apparatus for implicit floor control in push-to-talk over cellular systems Industry Class: Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomputer data transferring or plural processor synchronization ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Email address verification patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.22397 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Daimler Chrysler , DirecTV , Exxonmobil Chemical Company , Goodyear , Intel , Kyocera Wireless , 174 |
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